The end of the middle class?

With President Barack Obama’s demand that Congress pass his American Jobs Act and his call on the supercommittee to push hard on 10-year deficit reduction, a battle has begun that won’t be resolved until the 2012 election. If then.

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But the haunting reality is that neither side of the debate comes close to addressing the scope of our nation’s economic challenge. Washington is fighting over who has the better sand castle — while ignoring the tidal wave that is coming our way.

The jobs we’ve been shedding by the millions are solid, middle-class positions — the kind that could support a family and send children to college. The hard reality is that the relatively few jobs being created are service-related — disproportionately low-wage and low-skill. The broad middle class — the triumph and strength of America’s democracy — is sinking. Unless we change course dramatically, we will become even more a nation of haves and have-nots.

The current debate offers clear contrast. Right now, Obama wants to “jolt” a flagging economy, investing in teachers and infrastructure and cutting taxes on workers and small businesses. Over 10 years, he’d get our books in order by combining spending savings — largely on wars abroad and on Medicare, Medicaid and tax hikes on the wealthy.

Republicans scorn the American Jobs Act but may sign onto extending the payroll tax cut. They push for rolling back regulation, keeping taxes low and passing corporate trade accords. Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) just reiterated their staunch opposition to any tax hikes on the wealthy and their demand that deficit reduction focus on cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The differences are stark — so the choice is likely to be left to voters in the 2012 elections.

But both sides fail to address the scope of our challenge. Republicans seem to believe that simply rolling back Obama’s reforms and returning to former President George W. Bush’s economy will set us straight. But those are the policies that drove us off the cliff. They weren’t working for most Americans even when the economy was growing.

Worse, what little lift we had came from a massive housing bubble — some $8 trillion in exaggerated housing value — that has burst. We can’t go back there and should not want to.